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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/opinion/krugman-galt-gold-and-god.html?ref=paulkrugman
So far, most of the discussion of Paul Ryan, the presumptive Republican nominee for vice president, has focused on his budget proposals. But Mr. Ryan is a man of many ideas, which would ordinarily be a good thing.
In his case, however, most of those ideas appear to come from works of
fiction, specifically Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”
For those who somehow missed it when growing up, “Atlas Shrugged” is a
fantasy in which the world’s productive people — the “job creators,” if
you like — withdraw their services from an ungrateful society. The
novel’s centerpiece is a 64-page speech by John Galt, the angry elite’s
ringleader; even Friedrich Hayek admitted that he never made it through
that part. Yet the book is a perennial favorite among adolescent boys.
Most boys eventually outgrow it. Some, however, remain devotees for
life.
And Mr. Ryan is one of those devotees. True, in recent years, he has
tried to downplay his Randism, calling it an “urban legend.” It’s not
hard to see why: Rand’s fervent atheism — not to mention her declaration
that “abortion is a moral right” — isn’t what the G.O.P. base wants to
hear.
But Mr. Ryan is being disingenuous. In 2005, he told the Atlas Society,
which is devoted to promoting Rand’s ideas, that she inspired his
political career: “If I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would
be Ayn Rand.” He also declared that Rand’s work was required reading for
his staff and interns.
And the Ryan fiscal program clearly reflects Randian notions. As I
documented in my last column, Mr. Ryan’s reputation for being serious
about the budget deficit is completely undeserved; his policies would
actually increase the deficit. But he is deadly serious about cutting
taxes on the rich and slashing aid to the poor, very much in line with
Rand’s worship of the successful and contempt for “moochers.”
This last point is important. In pushing for draconian cuts in Medicaid,
food stamps and other programs that aid the needy, Mr. Ryan isn’t just
looking for ways to save money. He’s also, quite explicitly, trying to
make life harder for the poor — for their own good. In March, explaining
his cuts in aid for the unfortunate, he declared, “We don’t want to
turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into
lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and
their incentive to make the most of their lives.”
Somehow, I doubt that Americans forced to rely on unemployment benefits
and food stamps in a depressed economy feel that they’re living in a
comfortable hammock.
But wait, there’s more: “Atlas Shrugged” apparently shaped Mr. Ryan’s
views on monetary policy, views that he clings to despite having been
repeatedly, completely wrong in his predictions.
In early 2011, Mr. Ryan, newly installed as the chairman of the House
Budget Committee, gave Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, a
hard time over his expansionary policies. Rising commodity prices and
long-term interest rates, he asserted, were harbingers of high inflation
to come; “There is nothing more insidious that a country can do to its
citizens,” he intoned, “than debase its currency.”
Since then, inflation has remained quiescent while long-term rates have
plunged — and the U.S. economy would surely be in much worse shape than
it is if Mr. Bernanke had allowed himself to be bullied into monetary
tightening. But Mr. Ryan seems undaunted in his monetary views. Why?
Well, it’s right there in that 2005 speech to the Atlas Society, in
which he declared that he always goes back to “Francisco d’Anconia’s
speech on money” when thinking about monetary policy. Who? Never mind.
That speech (which clocks in at a mere 23 paragraphs) is a case of
hard-money obsession gone ballistic. Not only does the character in
question, a Galt sidekick, call for a return to the gold standard, he
denounces the notion of paper money and demands a return to gold coins.
For the record, the U.S. currency supply has consisted overwhelmingly of
paper money, not gold and silver coins, since the early 1800s. So if
Mr. Ryan really thinks that Francisco d’Anconia had it right, he wants
to turn the clock back not one but two centuries.
Does any of this matter? Well, if the Republican ticket wins, Mr. Ryan
will surely be an influential force in the next administration — and
bear in mind, too, that he would, as the cliché goes, be a heartbeat
away from the presidency. So it should worry us that Mr. Ryan holds
monetary views that would, if put into practice, go a long way toward
recreating the Great Depression.
And, beyond that, consider the fact that Mr. Ryan is considered the
modern G.O.P.’s big thinker. What does it say about the party when its
intellectual leader evidently gets his ideas largely from deeply
unrealistic fantasy novels?
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